The Josh Chronicles
by mariko05
Summary: Being Erica": This is about the relationship between Josh, Erica's sister's boyfriend, and Erica.
1. Can't Behave

_Being Erica_: The Josh Chronicles

**Disclaimer**: I OWN NOTHING.

**Summary**: For you poor souls who have never seen or even heard of this show, FIND IT. I recommend this to anyone who loves humour and sincerity.

Anyways, it's about a woman named Erica Strange who is having a tough time. She's thirty-something, single (though not all the time. Ethan: cute best friend, but married; Ryan: cute, Josh's best friend, Ethan look-a-like, has potential; and Josh: semi cute, and as of _today_, her brother-in-law), unemployed and overly educated (has a Masters degree). One rainy evening when her blind date bails she stepped into a coffee shop and is offered a sample of their almond latte (she has a nut allergy). Needless to say she had to be rushed to the hospital and received a weird visit from an even weirder psychologist, Dr. Tom. She decided to meet with him and he makes her write down all her regrets. In each episode she goes back in time to revisit one of her regrets and has to decide whether she would do anything differently.

**Note**: I'm kind of having an obsession with song fics now.

In this chapter the song I've used is called "Can't Behave" sung by Courtney Jaye.

The term "lady garden" I borrowed from the trailer of the movie "The Ugly Truth" which will star Katherine Heigl (from _Grey's_) and Gerard Butler (from _P.S. I Love You_)—I find that euphemism very funny.

Anyways, as I was reading this story over again I realized there are some discrepancies. So I've changed the story a little bit. Instead of Josh driving the car (which he wouldn't be able to at 14) I've invented his older brother named John (who is a year younger than Erica). And I've changed the time line. I think it will make a big difference to how the story is read. So I hope this makes it better. Feel free to write a review.

**Pairing**: Erica/Josh…_eventually_…

_Enjoy!_

**Chapter One: Can't Behave**

_Fifteen years ago…_

I remember my prom **vividly**. Well, the day of the prom actually. The actual prom is still kind of fuzzy. If anyone has any video, sign me up please!

I went because my sister Sam had just started to date a cute ninth grader named Josh and she desperately wanted to go with him. I tried to talk her out of it. She would get to be able to go to her own prom in four years. But she told me that by then she would be a jaded twelfth grader (like myself) and _not_ want to go. Instead, she told me, she would probably end up puking her guts up at some biker bar with Josh. I thought it was pretty presumptuous of her that she would still be dating this guy, but who was I to judge. I never had a relationship with a man, never mind a boy, that lasted longer than two weeks. I couldn't think past two weeks. It seemed like a century to me.

"_Erica_!" Sam shouted.

"In my room!" I answered.

Sam nodded her head at my room. "Josh can you ask her if she's done her hair yet?"

Josh rolled his eyes, but complied. I heard a knock on my door.

"Just a minute," I replied to the knock. I heard the door open slightly. "Just a minute Sam," I shrieked.

I frantically tried to turn the damn electric hair razor off, but it got stuck in my hair. Not on my head. You _know_. It was _there_.

I whirled around in my chair. "Sam, I said…" I stopped cold. I quickly tried to cover myself, but not quickly enough.

"Your _not_ Sam," I accused Josh angrily. "I told you to wait outside."

His eyes immediately drifted downward as I tried to cover up my "lady garden" unsuccessfully. His mouth made an "O" and then covered his mouth as he started to laugh.

"No," he said, his eyes sparkling with laughter, "You told me 'just a minute'. I waited a minute and then came in."

"God!" I muttered. "You are _so_ annoying!"

"What's going on?" my sister, who had just walked up beside Josh, asked me.

"Oh my god! _Erica_!" she shrieked as she tried to cover up Josh's eyes.

My sister nodded her head towards the blinded Josh. "Can't you be a little more _discrete_? We have a man in the house?"

"God, are you the incarnation of a fifties housewife, or what? I told him to wait outside," I told her, annoyed.

Sam, although pissed off at Josh, turned him around towards the door still covering his eyes.

"Come on Sam!" he sighed. "It's not like I haven't seen everything already!"

Sam smacked him on the back of his head with her other hand.

After they left I turned on the radio. With nothing on, I started singing a song I heard last week. Last week, as in _last_ week when I turned thirty-two. I became obsessed. I should totally sing it to Sam. If she knew what I _know _now, it absolutely applies to her life.

**I've got eyes in the back of my head/your halo is turning red/fooling around, knocking me off my cloud/they're talking about your mischievous ways/boy, it's painted all over your face/stealing a kiss, mysterious whispers, a thorn in my pride, I'm still by your side**

I wore this hideous green monster to the prom. It was sea green; according to my mother it highlights my red hair and my eyes. But I looked like fish out of water.

"Oh my god! _Erica_?" gasped my best friends, Katie and Jenny. "_That_ dress!"

"My mom picked it out…" I whispered.

"I'm sorry…what was that Erica?" Jenny asked loudly.

"My mother picked my FUCKING dress!" I screamed at her.

Both her and Katie looked shocked at my outburst. My sister and Josh stood in the doorway shocked. That was probably because they'd never even heard me so much as raise my voice before.

I looked down, ashamed. Softly I told them, "I didn't have time to go shopping, _okay_?"

My friends looked up just in time to see Josh walking towards us, obviously furious. "Are you okay Erica?"

Embarrassed that I had to be rescued by my younger sister's boyfriend, I didn't even look at him as I waved my arm in nonchalance and muttered, "I'm fine." My friends and I walked away laughing.

Now that I come to think of it I probably shouldn't have done that, especially with what happened after the dance.

It was almost three am and my friends and I got kicked out of the hotel for making too much noise and then almost arrested for drinking all the mini bottles of vodka that were kept in the mini fridge. By then I was very out of it and waiting for a cab, when Josh's brother's car pulled up by the side of the road. My sister rolled down the window and yelled, "Erica! Get in the car!" As I could barely balance myself standing upright, my sister had to get out of the car and lay me on the back seat. As we drove I kept feeling sick and passing out. I remembered thinking, _if this was what drunk felt like I think I'd like to pass_.

By the time we reached our house, I vaguely remember that my sister told Josh that she couldn't bring me in the house looking like _that_. So his brother John told her not to worry and that he would let me sleep it off in the car and bring me back tomorrow. I recipe for disaster I would say.

I've only been to their home once before and his family lived five minutes away. But that night it seemed like twenty. The next thing I know is that John has stopped the car and Josh has opened the back door.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" I moaned in pain and dizziness.

"Shh…" he said as he climbed in beside me and laid my head on his lap.

The last thing I remember is Josh stroking my hair and repeating, "Shh…it's okay…" Like I'm some kind of invalid.

I woke up the next morning with a headache that felt like an anvil dropped on my head. Although I tried to sit up I felt too dizzy to even see straight and lay my head down again. Josh, on the other hand, was snoring lightly with his head was resting on the back of the car seat. We must have looked anything other than innocent because I woke up again to the shrieking of my sister.

"How could you!?!" Sam is screaming at Josh and punching him in the chest. "How could you!?! And with my sister!"

My sister didn't speak to me for a week after that incident. When our parents sat us down and told us that we would have to eat mushrooms for a week (we both think they are vomit inducing) we became best friends again. But she refused to tell me if her silence was because Josh came to my rescue or if it was because I blew him off afterwards.

**But one day, I'm walking away/the tide is gonna turn, I'm gonna find my place/give me a reason to stay/I wanna be your lover/baby, but you can't behave**

"Erica?"

"Josh?"

"Yeah."

"Hang up."

"I _need_ to talk to Sam."

"You don't _need_ to talk to anyone." So I hung up on him.

**Remember the days and the Hollywood nights/what happened to paradise/stolen away, I can't replace it now/cause rumours are flying that I can't avoid/are they true or am I paranoid/living like this is driving me crazy so make up your mind/your running out of time**

Josh ambushed me two months after that fateful day after the prom.

"Erica, I need to talk to you."

"Go away," I told him angrily. "My sister hates you, so I hate you too."

"You don't hate me," Josh flirted.

"I do," I replied, "and you need to leave before Sam catches you here. Do you want another dent in your head?"

Josh moved towards me and pushed me into the circular bush in front of my house.

Sam was watching us from her window that faces that street and was fuming.

The door opened and Jenny entered her room and jumped onto her bed.

"What's up?"

"How dare she?"

"How dare she what?" Jenny asked confused.

"How dare she make a move on my boyfriend!" Sam cried.

Jenny moved to the window where Sam was looking out into her front yard. She saw Erica and she saw Josh. They were playful and laughing and running around like children. She shook her head.

"I don't think anything is going on," she said seriously.

"I wish that were true," Sam said sadly as she turned from the window. "I wish that were true."

**But one day, I'm walking away/the tide is gonna turn, I'm gonna find my place/give me a reason to stay/I wanna be your lover/baby, but you can't behave**

"Can you forgive me?" Josh asked as Sam sat beside them on their picnic.

She shook her head. "I don't know."

"I didn't do anything wrong," he claimed.

"It's not that. I feel that you are more comfortable with my sister than you are with me."

"I love you," Josh said as he cupped Sam's face with his hands. "But I think you already know that. I love _you_. Not Erica."

He shook his head. "Definitely _not_ Erica."

**Ease all of my worries/please don't make me play the fool/baby won't you hurry/you don't know what you're gonna lose**

_Four years later…_

"I'm leaving tomorrow."

Sam looked at Josh in shock. "What?!?"

Josh looked at her sheepishly. "I know we promised that we were going to work through our _issues_, but I need to get ready. I mean I'm leaving for British Columbia for God sakes. I need to get ready."

Sam was still staring at Josh incredulously when I popped my head through the door. "Sis, did you want some lunch?"

I wasn't sure whether to acknowledge Josh or not, so I said, "You're welcome to stay for lunch Josh?"

He shook his head "no".

"My mother needs me at home right now," was his lame excuse. Then he got up and walked right past me and out the door.

**But one day, I'm walking away/the tide is gonna turn, I'm gonna find my place/give me a reason to stay/I wanna be your lover/baby, but you can't behave**

Sam sat on my bed. "Do you think Josh loves me?"

I almost choke on my yogurt. "What?"

"Do you think Josh loves me?" she asked again.

"I think he would be stupid not to."

"But do you think he loves me?" she asked once more.

I looked her straight in the eyes and said honestly, "I have _no_ idea."

**Baby, but you can't behave**

It was August third. It was Saturday August third and all I could hear was yelling. It was so loud that it was almost shrieking.

"I hate you! I hate you!"

Sam was throwing things at her wall. They were things that echoed so I could hear them from across the hall. I remembered being surprised that nobody but myself could hear this. This racket.

"I hate you and I wish I never met you!"

Some more things were thrown at her wall. But this time they were probably her textbooks from her first year psych class at York.

"But tell me this," Sam's voiced seemed to be getting louder. "Was she any good?"

Then, silence.


	2. Graduation

_Being Erica_: The Josh Chronicles

**Note**: The song is "Graduation" sung by Vitamin C. Come to think of it, this song is pretty cheesy, but for all intents and purposes I guess it does justice to what high school graduates are feeling.

**Chapter Two: Graduation (The Time of Your Life) **_**or**_** The-Day-I-Wished-the-Earth-Would-Swallow-Me-Whole**

_One year and three days after the fateful night of prom_…

I had tears streaming down my face as I sat cross-legged on my bed, while my cheap hair-straightener held a piece of my hair, which was now beginning to burn.

"Erica!" shouted my distraught mother. "We're going to be late! And to _your_ graduation!"

"I'm coming," I shouted back at her. But I still continued to burn my hair as I blasted Vitamin C's "Graduation".

The music was so loud that I didn't hear Sam enter the room. She had to yell, "Nostalgic much?" three times before I heard her.

"Can't you just leave me alone?" I begged of her.

Sam sat down on the bed next to me. "I know that you're upset that John dumped you, but God, can't you suck it up for one night and not make everyone sorry for you? You'll realize that John wasn't right for you in time, you know?"

I laughed through my tears. "When did you become so wise?"

Sam started to laugh as well. "I think its because I have such a brilliant older sister."

"Good answer," I told her.

I turned off my hair straightener and told her to tell our parents that I'd be down in a minute. I half joke that I'd be right down after I down a bottle of pain-killers and half a bottle of Vodka. She nodded, probably realizing it was a joke, and then went downstairs.

Five minutes later I heard a car pull up in our driveway.

"Sam, you have a visitor."

**So, we talked all night about the rest of our lives/where we're gonna be when we turn twenty-five/I keep thinking times will never change/I keep on thinking times will always be the same/when we leave this year we will never be coming back/no more hanging out cause we're on a different track/so, if you've got something that you need to say/you better say it right now cause you don't have another day**

I ran down the stairs of my high school towards the classroom that my group was supposed to be gathered in. Everyone were in their robes and chatting about what was going to happen next, when I entered, out of breath and unkempt.

"Thank you for joining us, Erica," said Mr. Brown.

"Those are for you," he told me, pointing at a very embarrassing display of red roses.

"Really?" I asked as I wiped my red eyes. I read the card, but realizing who it was from I crumpled it up and dumped everything into the nearest garbage can. Everyone was staring at me like I was an idiot.

"What?!?" I snapped. They got into a straight line and we were off to the auditorium.

**We're moving on a we can't slow down/these memories are playing like a film without sound and I keep thinking another night in June/I didn't know what you love but it came too soon **

"Erica!" I heard someone shouting my name. "Erica!"

As I turned to see who it was I tripped (on my right leg) and fell, face down, on the ground floor as everyone watched. I picked myself up, but by then, my nose had started to bleed, hard, and I rushed to the washroom.

Two hours later, when I decided that the proceedings would be over and they would be holding the reception in the gym, I ventured to come out. I came out, but only to be greeted by the person that I really didn't want to see.

"I found these in the garbage," he said as he held up wilted red roses.

"You should have left them there," I told him sagely.

"I left them for you because I still like you."

"You like me John, but not enough to tell your parents, friends, or even your brother," I told him angrily.

"The relationship between Josh and I have been strained lately," he told me.

"Why?"

"There are some issues that we have to work out."

"But will you tell him?" I pressured.

He looked down guiltily and said, "Not yet."

"Then, we have _nothing_ to talk about."

I began to walk away, but only got so far as the water fountain before my ankle gave out and I fell.

"Erica! Erica, are you alright?" he asked me as he gave me his hand to stand up.

"I'm fine," I waved him off. This was giving me flashbacks to prom night.

He ignored me, and pulled me up by my under arms, when everyone came storming out of the auditorium.

They stopped dead when they saw us. Especially since Josh and Sam were the first ones to come out.

**And there was me and you and then we got real blue/stay at home, talking on the telephone and we would get so excited and we would get so scared, laughing at ourselves thinking 'life's not fair'/And this is how we feel**

_A year later_…

"I think we should see other people," I told John over the phone.

"Why? Did you meet someone at school?" he asked, concerned.

"No. I just…" I trailed off as Ethan entered the room.

"Come on, Strange. Let's go! We're going to be late!" He yelled as he pulled Claire close to him.

"We'll meet you in the car," she mouthed.

"I have to go," I told him and then hung up.

**As we go on we remember all the times we had together/As our lives change, come whatever/We will still be friends forever**

_A day later_…

"Hello?" I asked cheerfully into the phone.

"Erica?"

"Yep. Whose this?" I chirped.

"John," he said weirdly.

"What's up?"

"Remember what you said yesterday?"

"Of course," I giggled.

"Did you mean it?"

"Yeah. I think that this long distance thing is hard."

I heard him let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Cause I met someone yesterday."

"Really?" I asked curiously. "Since the time we hung up and the time I'm talking to you right now, you've met somebody new?"

"Well…" he hesitated. "I may have been seeing her longer than that."

**So if we get the big jobs and we make the big money will we look back now and will our jokes still be funny? Will we still remember everything we learned in school? Still be trying to break every single rule? **

_Two weeks later_…

I went home for reading week when I got the shock of my life. The first night back we had a celebratory dinner. I thought it was for me so I wore a beautiful purple toga-like dress and spent an hour and a half curling my hair so it was perfect.

When the guests arrived I was surprised to see that it was just Josh, his family and John's new girlfriend, Mandy.

"Erica," said John's mother, Isabella, "have you met John's fiancée, Mandy?"

"Fiancee?" I chocked.

"Didn't he tell you, dear?" she asked me with sympathy. "They got engaged two weeks ago."

"Excuse me," I smiled tightly and left the room.

**Will we think about tomorrow like we think about now? Can we survive it out there? Can we make it somehow? I guess I thought that this would never end and suddenly its like we're women and men/Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round? Will these memories fade when I leave this town? I keep thinking that its not goodbye/I keep thinking that its our time to fly**

_Two days after "the announcement"_…

My new best friends were cranberry juice and vodka.

"I can't believe he did this to me! To _me_! I'm an awesome girlfriend," I whined to myself.

Suddenly, in my alcohol-induced haze, I got a brilliant idea.

It was four in the morning and my head was pounding so I decided that a walk would be just the thing to clear the bombarding thoughts pounding in my head.

I found myself in front of John's new house and saw his brand new car. It was black and perfect for what I was planning to do next. I took out my sister's car keys.

"U BASERD," I scratched into the side of his car. But right as I finished I leaned a little bit too forward and set off the alarm. The shrieking prevented me from making a run for it. I was too busy covering my ears to notice that John, Mandy, Mandy's family, and his next door neighbors had all turned on their lights and opened their front doors.

"Erica?"

I must have passed out because the next thing I remember is being slapped awake by my mother and Sam.

"What the _hell _is wrong with you?"


End file.
